I LOVE the S.H.A.M. acronym!

And the theory works to sift out the less helpful from the more helpful of these books - the more substantial and helpful books describe techniques and processes you can use repeatedly to (re)solve problems, instead of just empty boosterism. My own bookshelf includes 2 such books - the justly famous "What Color Is Your Parachute" and the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".

My observation is that many people want a quick fix, and are unwilling to do the hard work that the better self-help books prescribe. This is a problem faced by therapists as well: even after extensive self-examination, many patients don't go on to the more challenging step of actually changing habits of behavior and thought.

So maybe it's not entirely the fault of the books or their authors.

Very split on this. On the one hand, every motivational self-help book I've ever thumbed usually boiled down to one sentence: "make a list of tasks to be accomplished every day and cross each task off once completed." Not exactly earth-shattering, but guess what? It works for me. Was that one piece of common-sense advice worth the $12.95 I spent at Borders? I'd have to say yes. A successful law school classmate of mine and published author also swears by the Anthony Robbins collection (bought the tapes and everything). He's probably spent about $500 on the whole kit, but he attributes a good portion of his personal success to the lessons learned therein. Again, $500 seems pretty reasonable.

While working in a bookstore, a customer asked for a book on improving memory that her father saw while in the day before. She said he couldn't remember the title or the author, but it had an elephant on the cover...

The two self-help books I've found to be most helpful are one I found on your list of books to read (A Fine Romance by... Judith Sills? Can't remember, quite, and I'm feeling too lazy to look it up. It's in your recommended books, anyway.) The second is an online book, at http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/ that talks about self-help and motivation from a psychological standpoint. Both immensely useful.

But, truth be told, the perfect self-help book is a myth as shady as the myth of the perfect mate. Some are likely to work better than most, but you still have to be willing to work at it.

I investigated the self-help "movement" for a TV documentary not long ago, and I have to say I think it's harmless and quite possibly helpful for people with obvious problems.


We shot tape, for example, at a meeting of parents of suicide kids. They just wanted to talk about it endlessly, which is understandable. It's also understandable that people who didn't share that awful tragedy would get tired of hearing about it rather quickly. So therefore I believe the meeting had therapeutic value.

I investigated the self-help "movement" for a TV documentary not long ago, and I have to say I think it's harmless and quite possibly helpful for people with obvious problems.


We shot tape, for example, at a meeting of parents of suicide kids. They just wanted to talk about it endlessly, which is understandable. It's also understandable that people who didn't share that awful tragedy would get tired of hearing about it rather quickly. So therefore I believe the meeting had therapeutic value.

I investigated the self-help "movement" for a TV documentary not long ago, and I have to say I think it's harmless and quite possibly helpful for people with obvious problems.


We shot tape, for example, at a meeting of parents of suicide kids. They just wanted to talk about it endlessly, which is understandable. It's also understandable that people who didn't share that awful tragedy would get tired of hearing about it rather quickly. So therefore I believe the meeting had therapeutic value.

My files of useless trivia clanged at the name Rodale Press. My first wife had a subscription to Prevention Magazine ( Registered Nurse with curiosity about alternate medicine ).
Anyway, Rodale died at 60 or 61.
One wit couldn't help commenting on the early demise of a health guru : " Healthiet looking corpse I ever have seen."

Stu, by any chance, did you invesigate the self help "movement"?
How did you document your investigtion? Tape perhaps?
And I'm curious about your convlusions. Find any therapeutic value?

Of course I meant "conclusions." Althugh if there were any convulsions, did you tape that?

Inspirational reading is a Must imho and my humble experiences thus far.

However, I've noticed that even as a person who can read at a very fast pace, I really don't need more than a couple new entries a year into this section of my library.

Same with audio tapes and messages, another very important tool to have in one's mental and spiritual health care gym. I've got a current library of less than 100 audiotapes (about 100 hrs) with maybe a dozen speakers on varying themes.

Let's face it. If a message is well received, keep it on hand. But you don't need to keep hundreds of books and tapes on hand. If you're truly having an increasingly successful life on this or that project or mission, you won't have time to read or to listen to more than a modest library.

Lots of new teachers writing great messages daily and being published. Some are more well received than others. But it's unlikely that all of them will be so unique that they supercede the many tried and true messages I bet most of us have on our shelves already if we made any sincere effort over the years to do so.

Save that excessive book and tape $$ and invest it in a real gym....heh. Work on your physical so you can better enjoy all this newfound success in life you were told would come your way if you just bought the BOOK OF THE MONTH.

three cents, plus a nickel

Steve in Clearwater

Great post Amy, thanks!
This whole self help guide phenomenon is fascinating to me (though I don't buy into it). It seems like its main value is its "Gestalt", ie. enabling people to feel that whatever problem they're confronted with is not due to them, but to the situation, and that they can affect it. Pretty commonsense IMHO -- but I guess I'm a cynic ;)

Testing, testing

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